Three men caught trying to enter Princess Juliana International Airport SXM with false Greek travel documents Saturday evening was still the talk of the town on Monday. It has been confirmed meanwhile that the detainees are Syrian.
What made the story all the more scary after Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris was that a Syrian passport had been found near the body of one of the gunmen there, showing he had entered Europe via Greece. However, it must be kept in mind that this is the case for hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers coming from that troubled part of the world.
Many of these persons also are sold fake papers on the black market so they can move around the continent more easily. The chance of the trio held in St. Maarten turning out to be such refugees is therefore obviously much greater than of their being involved in terrorism.
Nevertheless, one can never be too careful and the Immigration Officers at the airport deserve credit for staying alert and detecting the forgery. It is good to know that those in charge of border control were on the ball.
Again, there is no immediate reason to assume the worst, also because the suspects flew in from Haiti on InselAir. If they physically took part in what happened in the French capital only a day earlier, there probably would have been little time to make such an elaborate flight connection.
However, the incident does show that even “The Friendly Island” must remain constantly on guard, now more than ever. There is indeed no cause for panic, but a healthy dose of fear is quite normal under the circumstances and hopefully will serve to make people especially cautious and vigilant in light of recent events.
